Friday, August 31, 2007

[Cyclelicious] New comment on Bay Area Tour de Transit.

Caltrain has a dedicated compartment on each trainset that can carry up to 32 or 16 bikes, depending on the car.

California Amtrak commuters and the Altamont Commuter Express also have bike compartments. ACE can carry up to 34 bikes per train, depending on how the train is configured. Amtrak commuter trains have dedicated room for 3 bikes per car.

Santa Clara County light rail has bike hooks. Each train has at least 4 and up to 8 hooks in it. Cyclists can also store bikes near the doors if the hooks are full so max realistic capacity can be something like 16 bikes per train, depending on how many cars are on the train.

BART permits bikes on board (with some restrictions), but there's no dedicated bike storage for the bikes. You just bring them on board and hold them in the aisle. Here's a photo of a bike on BART that's pretty typical: http://www.flickr.com/photos/turkisdach/174257061/

I avoid taking my bike on BART -- it's kind of a pain in the neck because the system is very heavily used.